A Response to Dale Headley

"Judging by your spelling, I assume you’re a Brit. So you folks over there are aware of our shame: the WBC.

I would be equally interested in what you think of our greater shame: a cowardly acceptance that shooting people down in multiple numbers in schools, theaters, malls, businesses, and streets with military-style weaponry is a cultural norm to be celebrated in our “exceptional” country. The Bible-thumping right wing in America believes that the ripping to shreds of 20 helpless, innocent babes is a small price to pay for maintaining the fiction that the 2nd Amendment was intended by old slave-owners in powdered wigs to assure that everyone (except slaves) had unhindered access to whatever weaponry they desired, aside from the muskets stored in a central armory for the use of a well-regulated militia in each state.

Fred Phelps and his odious clan are almost as low as you can get - almost as low as the NRA, which gleefully sacrifices little children to the greed of the manufacturers and sellers of weapons and ammunition."

--------------------------------------------

Dear Dale

I speak The Queen's English, that is true; but I am in fact from Sunny South Africa. My beautiful yet mad country sees its fair share of violence and there is little gun control. However, our arms "epidemic" is nothing compared to The NRA's acceptance of, and America's desensitisation to school shootings.

I'm crying as I type this, just as I cried the day I read about the defenseless babes that were murdered in Sandy Hook Elementary School not too long ago. I am a child therapist and I am used to seeing the world through the eyes of the young. What must those last terrifying moments have been like for those treasured little earthjewels?

And then, lo and behold, the Westboro Baptist Church ride the media wave by announcing that they will picket the funerals of these damned young souls, praising god for sending the shooter to administer his righteous justice.

The WBC do not deserve mention when talking about these shootings, and I loath to give them the attention they so richly crave. But they do serve to make my point, which is this:

The NRA, like the WBC, while claiming to use the constitution to justify their methods, actually pray on those who are sensitive to religion. To speak out against their constitutional rights is to speak out against their belief in god. So brilliantly is this concept intertwined into the brainwashed bible-belt, that they can no longer distinguish between guns, god, or government. And a threat to one is a threat to all three.

They are ready to defend against this threat with the very lives of their children.